Book Review - The Liberation of Sita

This book, I bought it on the suggestion of Nalini Chettur of the famous "Giggles" - The Biggest Little bookshop in Chennai. I have been a regular at her shop and I love buying books from her. I love my interactions with her. She is someone who has details about every book she sells in her finger-tip and can also make some great suggestions according to your reading taste. So when she suggested this one for me, I knew it would not go wrong. Okay, enough of the introduction, now about the book.

Book Title: The Liberation of Sita

Author: Volga
Translated from Telugu by T.VijayaKumar and C.Vijayashree
Publisher: HarperPerennial

This book has been crafted with the woman characters from the epic Valmiki's Ramayana. There are five stories in the book with Sita (Wife of Shri Ramachandra) as the central character. Ramayana is a book that speaks volumes about Lord Rama and his righteousness and up keeping of Arya Dharma. But there are so many minor female characters in the story whose lives are toppled in the journey of Dharma. This book delves into those female characters and weaves a story which speaks the other side of Ramayana - the life and learning of its female characters.

Surpanakha, Ahalya, Renuka and Urmila are the females whose lives change in the course of Dharma as much that of Sita. Sita is abandoned by Rama in the name of a King's Dharma. This and all other painful experiences in Sita's life is dealt with in this book from her perspective. The author takes us through the life of each female character through their conversation with Sita. The injustice meted upon each woman by the men and their journey to empowerment is a lesson to Sita ultimately leading her to self-realization and liberation. There is an amazing sisterhood which is established among these women through these stories. Each story is a beautiful interlock of episodes from Ramayana and the creativity of the Author. The Author being a feminist writer has effectively brought out the female perspective of Ramayana.

This book definitely comes strongly against the male domination and blind propagation of Dharma. It is a perfect take on the inner strength and resilience of women and how they don't always need a man to feel complete. But even when delivering a strong picture of women, this book binds her to an image of sacrifice and withdrawal which has always been expected out of a woman. As a reader, there are few questions that have been playing around in my mind. Why do women always have to choose self-retreat as a glorious option when fighting patriarchy? Even when self-realisation is a great state of mind, why can't we opt for a different ending to each life even in fiction?

This book is a definite read for all those people who believe in fighting back patriarchy and who want to get a feel of an empowered woman. It made me feel liberated. I could relate to various points that are raised by the characters and I think that is why an epic like Ramayana wrote centuries ago is relevant even today. 

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The Amazing GlassBlower

He heats one end of a long glass tube holding it in his hand and when it just starts to take a gluey liquid form he gently blows through the other end of the tube with his mouth and simultaneously rolls the tube. Slowly a small bulb-like swelling appears at the hot end. He continues to do it with precision and concentration and in a few minutes magically a small super cute perfume bottle takes form. He checks the base of the bottle by pressing the base on a black stone and again after heating the other end which is still attached to the tube, breaks it away and finishes it with perfection and places the hot bottle before me. I am completely awestruck looking at the cute little thing. I try to touch it but he stops me saying "It is hot". Yes, it is. So I just keep looking at it without touching. He smiles and takes up another glass stick to start his next magical art. Oh! I turn quickly to him with my camera capturing his hands working with the hot glass in detail.

He is Mr.Srinivasan Raghavan - The GlassBlower

Mr.Srinivasan Raghavan

When a friend suggested that I write about Mr.Srinivasan in my blog I was thrilled. Glass blowing was something that I had never seen before. I set out on my journey of about 30 Kilometres on a Saturday afternoon. I reached Dakshinchitra - “A cross-cultural museum of art, architecture, lifestyles, crafts and performing arts of South India” where Mr.Srinivasan is a consultant craftsman. Immediately after checking into their guest house I went to meet Mr.Srinivasan.  I told him about my interest in writing about him on my blog and he readily agreed to talk about himself and his journey in this field.

As he talked his hands started working with the glass rod and the flame. Technically glass is called super cool liquid. Glass is not a solid matter. Glass is made from silica(sand) and soda lime. According to him, Glass forms naturally in the environment around us. The lava of a volcano is basically glass as it is formed with silica and soda lime and when it mixes with other minerals it acquires its colour and its texture. There are 2 varieties of working with glass. One is glass blowing where the air is blown into hot glass tubes to creates hollow glass objects. The other method is where with strokes of straight lines and circles the hot glass is sculpted upon with hands to create intricate art forms. He is adept in both these techniques. Glass work is done when the glass in its frozen form is heated to 1400 degree Celsius and for this, he uses both LPG and oxygen cylinder. 

As he spoke to me he continued working and within few minutes he created a little elephant and handed it to me and told me that he begins his day by making a Lord Ganesha - The elephant-headed god known to be the remover of obstacles in Indian Mythology.

His journey in this field started with a government Job as a technical assistant at Pantnagar University in Nainital after completing his Diploma is Scientific glassblowing. But the boring work made him quit the job and move to Mumbai where he decided to find a job in the glass industry. This did not go well with his father who stopped communicating with him for almost 4 years after that. In Mumbai, he landed a job in Borosil India. But the monotonous work was not his calling and he resigned that too. It was during a seminar on scientific glass blowing conducted by Indian society for scientific glass blowers that he met art glass blowers from Hyderabad working with Regional Research Laboratory who introduced him to the art glass blowing. It was a big industry in Hyderabad from where perfume bottles were exported to Middle east and other countries. He spent next 2 and a half years learning the art and working in Hyderabad. With dedication and hard work he sharpened his skills in the art form. When he returned to his hometown and set up a workshop at home he was happy to earn through his art. People started hearing about him and he became a regular in art exhibitions and art shows. While participating in one such event he struck up an acquaintance with the Secretary of Dakshinchitra which led his way back to Chennai and to Dakshinchitra where he started working as a consultant craftsman. Being a consultant he was free to work and sell inside the village. Dakshinchitra is visited by local and foreign tourists throughout the year and hence he became famous and made friends with many art enthusiasts. He has been in this field for 30 years and still continues to follow it with passion. Mr.Srinivasan has been invited to give demos and lectured by various art institutions and organisations. He has also travelled the world to different countries where he is a regular at many cultural festivals and exhibitions showcasing this rare art form.

The Horsecart

As he was talking to me a group of visitors came in to see his work. Mr.Srinivasan started all over again explaining how he works showing them practically the techniques as they all watched in awe. Being a weekend there was a steady flow of visitors and he being a true entertainer never once failed in making his audience happy. He is at his cheerful best when curious onlookers flock him to get a glimpse and also to have a feel of his work. There is a magic in glass and even after watching the process numerous times I never felt bored of it. One of the visitors was curious to know how he made a living out of this art. Mr.Srinivasan being the simple person he is replied saying “If you are an artist you have to be content with what we make. I am content with whatever I earn and hence I make a living out of it”. Some visitors wanted to know how they could learn this art. Mr.Srinivasan had an answer for that too, which he tells his students too. The 3P principle - Passion, Patience, Practice. But there was also a 4th P which he believed was very important for art to flourish - “Patron”.

The Boatman and the Beauty - This was made in 3 hours

I spent about 3 hours with Mr.Srinivasan over the 2 days I stayed in Dakshinchitra and talked about many things. A well-read person, a humble and good human being and a great artist, he kept me engaged with his pleasant nature and informative chat. He believes that an artist should also be an entertainer and I can say he is a true entertainer. When I bid goodbye to him and left Dakshinchitra I felt happy about the time well spent. The hissing sound of the gas burning, the magical work of glass blowing and the smiling face that creates the magic will remain in my memory forever.

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Dream, Imagination, Possibility, Reality - Human and Science

Human beings are the most advanced species on this earth. We are the most dangerous species too. Since we are both advanced and dangerous we have been surviving on this earth for a very long time. We have travelled and developed from the primitive stage to the current stage of civilisation, science and technology. Where will we go from here? This is what is dealt with in the book "Homo Deus" by "Yuval Noah Harari" an Israeli Historian. I have not read the book. My husband has been reading it and whenever he finds something very interesting or compelling he reads it to me. It has kindled my curiosity and I can't wait to get my hands on the book. Not until he finishes it. So now my mind has started imagining the world in a different perspective.

One point the book says is the possibility of science finding ways to make "immortality" a reality. I and my husband discussed how would life be in that case? Would any of the things that we do make any sense in such a scenario? Even if we imagine that a human being will live up to 200 years young and healthy, the scenario seems bewildering. Would the education that we get during our schools be any time relevant after say 150 years? Would a marriage which is done in the 30s survive togetherness for a whopping 200 years? Wouldn't you get bored of your partner? And regarding children - if one is hale, healthy and fertile for 150 years, how many children will a woman deliver? What would be the kind of relationship parents and children share when parents are of 150 years and a kid is 20 years old? How would they even communicate effectively? With so many years guaranteed, what would be the kind things people will do in their lifetime? Would the aim of a middle class still be to own a car by 30 and a house by 40? What would they do for the rest of the, say, 150 years? What would the dreams be like for people?

When we were discussing, I had a doubt. Would the earth be able to support the population outburst? How would we feed the long living increasing population? what about the natural resources like water, fresh air? What about all the waste that we generate? With people living till 200 and producing dozens of children, the human population will kill this earth with its demands. What will happen to the earth? But we did find out a solution ourselves. When science will find a way to increase life period by maintaining youth and health, it will definitely find a way for people to survive without food and water. Maybe in such a time, the food we eat today will become irrelevant. And science will find ways for the body to stay hydrated without water. Since long life and youth cannot be achieved without regenerating cells, that kind of a development will definitely push development in the biology of our body and the way the human body works.

And about the waste generation, our imagination was that maybe the waste will be dumped on some other planet. Rockets might regularly be launched to dump waste into other planets. That way another planet would become our dump yard.  Or might be scientists will find out another planet for humans to move into. That way the earth can become a dump yard. Reminds me of the movie "Wall-E". Such a cinematic and fictional dream. But who knows these might become a reality after few hundred years. Science has made leaps and bounds in curing once fatal diseases. Science and technology have created robots who think and work like humans.  Science can create human embryo outside the human body. A baby with DNA from 3 parents has been born(Just now read the article) which has helped the boy escape a fatal disorder his mother suffers from which would otherwise have been transferred to the baby. Science is making advances faster than we can imagine. Hence all these fictional imaginations might very well become a reality in the future. I am sure these things might not happen in my lifetime but it might happen 2 generations down the line.

Oh! how I wish I could live to see such possibilities becoming realities. It would be great if normal people could open up their mind to these kinds of wonderful things happening around us and try to revel in the practical science. We can keep talking and clinging on to a bygone so called prosperous past getting us nowhere or we can walk towards the future of endless possibilities with open hands and enjoy the benefits. It is hypocrisy to want both in equal amounts.

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"My Skin color" - The crisis of many childhood.

What is your skin colour? How much importance do you give to your own skin colour? Let me answer that question from the standing point of a Malayalee brahmin middle-class teenager that once I was. Skin colour is how I measure my beauty and how I identify myself. That much important it is for a teenager that I was. It is one of the many obnoxious parameters that this society has defined for measuring the beauty of a girl. 

To say the least, I was not even a dark skinned girl. I was, what is generally called a brown skinned Indian, a south Indian and that too a Malayalee. Therein was the problem. I did not fit into the fair and shiny skinned Malayalee girl image which was the well-known description given to her. People would not believe when I would call myself a Malayalee. I looked like a Bengali, a Marathi, a Muslim, but never a Malayalee Brahmin. So I always hesitated to show off my Brahmin identity, although I was, by the superiority bestowed upon me by my caste, immensely proud of being Brahmin. I felt ashamed that I was a dark Brahmin girl.

You might be wondering why I felt ashamed. How else would you expect me to have felt when an elderly commented: "You don't look like a Brahmin." So It was a full-scale identity crisis for me. I neither looked like a Malayalee girl nor a Brahmin girl. But I was both. Hence I felt bad about myself. I once asked my mum why she had produced me brown. I believed it was unfair on her part to have produced me dark skinned and my sister a fair skinned girl. She did her best to tell me that herself and dad loved us both equally and that I was as beautiful as my sister. But my inferiority complex never allowed me to see through the haze.

It was exactly the period when India was stepping into the bliss of the fashion industry and the "Fair & lovely" advertisement was the most popular on television. It was the period when the standards of beauty that we see today was just beginning to get defined and products like "Fair & Lovely" and "Vicco ayurvedic" cream were doing their best to set these standards. It was actually the period when India opened it's gate to globalisation. I have seen young girls and women using these creams lavishly applying it on the face along with talcum powder which would look like a white paint. The cream and powder along with the sweat were the grossest sights. These creams were very popular among the young women of Tamilnadu. Tamilians are in general dark skinned and they have always been obsessed with white skinned people. They considered white skinned people to be sophisticated and beautiful and hence there was immense fan fair for such people everywhere in the state. Starting from schools to the cinema, at every level, this obsession was clearly visible. I feel this admiration for fair skin is prevalent even today. Hence it again made me feel bad. I was not fair enough to be beautiful and to be admired.

Today when I look at the young Malini, I pity myself for having felt so bad. Today I realise that skin colour is nothing but a skin colour. It has nothing to do with what I am and what I am capable of. Skin colour has nothing to do with my identity. What matters is what kind of a person I have come to be and what talents I possess. But by the time people realise this, they would have lost their whole childhood buried in the embarrassment of something that they have no control over. How pathetic it is to burden the innocent childhood with such kinds of the wrong definition of beauty and identity. In many people, the effect is so disastrous that they live with inferiority complex throughout their life. They lose their self-confidence and live a pathetic life just because they were born with dark skin. Many people like me do grow out of this phase and learn the reality of life, but many get stuck in it and live a life of self-loath. Today I love myself and I am proud of my skin colour.

I strongly feel that products and companies that propagate wrong ideas of beauty should be banned. Every company has a responsibility towards the people that it caters to. They should be held accountable for what they provide. In this consumeristic society, it is easy for such big corporates to wash their hands off such responsibilities in the name of development and money. But young girls and boys should be brought up in such a way that they respect themselves and others irrespective of their skin colour and physical appearance in general. Fair skin is not an achievement to be proud of because it comes from genes and you have no control over it. Benefits bestowed by birth can never make a person superior. We as a society should start gauging and respecting a personality not based on physical appearance or on monetary achievements but on his/her character, humanity and how they contribute to the society. Every person should be proud about their skin colour. It is what nature has given to you and you should cherish it. You should love yourself no matter how others treat you. This confidence should be given to our next generation.

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Plastic - The boon that is a bane

I read a news today which was shocking, at the same time very painful. A veterinary doctor performed a surgery on a cow and removed around 98 Kg of plastic and other deadly waste from its stomach. The waste included nails, screws, wire, socks and clothes along with lots of plastic covers. The cow was in immense pain and was unable to walk when it was brought in. This news disturbed me a lot. What are we humans doing to this earth? What has happened to us? Why have we become so insensitive? Why have we become so selfish? All these questions started boiling inside my head.

Plastic is the most useful, but the most dangerous substance as it is not bio-degradable. Hence when it is disposed of in the open it just keeps piling up and they stay, maybe forever. It just does not biodegrade. We use plastic for everything. From bags for carrying stuff to plastic boxes for storing things at home, from a small clip to big electronics everything is made of plastic. None of these is bio-degradable. Hence every bit of it has to be collected and treated specially. This is a costly as well as a time-consuming process. It has to be a systematic process. Hence plastic just piles up everywhere, on the roads, fields, in the forests, in the river and also in the sea. Everywhere they just live forever polluting this planet. Some people do try to dispose of it by burning it, but that too is a risky thing to do as the fumes pollute the air and breathing it for a longer time can cause severe illness in humans.

The most affected by this use of plastics are the animals. They are not aware of this substance and when we throw food waste and other things in plastic bags, animals like cows gobble them up thinking it is some kind of food. This plastic it just stays inside their system. Neither does it get digested nor does it get excreted. It just stays. Imagine a plastic bag stuck in your stomach for 2 days. It is shuddering. But these poor things don't know what they have swallowed. They don't know what is the problem with their stomach. Perhaps it just pains and they have to live with it until one day they collapse. Does it sound sad? To me, it sounds horrible. It makes me hate people who produce plastic, it makes me hate people who use it so carelessly. It makes me hate all those who either don't know what they are doing or who intentionally do it. It is so selfish of us to think only about us.

Plastic has been banned in many places most recently in Bangalore where there was a blanket ban. There are strict rules in the country which say plastic below 50 microns should not be manufactured. But how strictly these rules get implemented is a big question. None of the citizens who use plastics has any idea where the discarded plastic items go. We never bother to think where all the plastic waste is taken and what is done with them. We complain about clogged sewage and water logging but we turn a blind eye to the fact that it mostly the plastic bags that we discard which is the cause of this problem. They are so light that they just fly around in the air and land up anywhere. They are not only sour to eyes but also very dangerous pollutants.

The manufacturers seem to have no accountability what so ever in this matter. They manufacture it in mass and earn huge profits. But aren't they accountable too? In the case of plastic bags I understand, it is difficult. Because they have to be collected in bulk and recycled or else it is cumbersome work. In that case, the citizens have to be educated on the ill effects of using plastic bags. They should be educated on how to recycle it and also government/outsourced organisations should set up collection centres in towns where people can bring in collected plastic bags and give it for recycling. The manufacturers should pay some amount to the government for recycling purpose which the government can use in setting up collection points and recycling units. It is the responsibility of each person to leave this world a better place for the future generation. Steps should be taken to educate the uneducated and also to provide them with affordable eco-friendly alternatives to plastic bags.

Right now we are in a period where the life of holy cows are much dear and precious than human lives. But even among all this drama, the real pain of these animals go unseen and unheard of. There are no Gau-rakshas who can save these animals from this kind of silent cruelty. It is a great irony that the same people who kill humans for slaughtering cows cannot make any arrangements for making these animals eat safely. So much of hypocrisy in the name of politics and development.

We cannot completely avoid plastics but we need to learn to use them responsibly and as a system, define steps and actions to process them.

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The Groundnut Festival

We are familiar with various types of festivals celebrated in our place. Festivals in India are very colourful. Celebrations are a big part of our tradition. So when I heard about this unique kind of festival celebrated near the Dodda Ganesha temple in Basavanagudi hillock of Bengaluru, I could not stop myself from attending it. The festival is called "Kadalakkayi Parishe" which literally translates into Groundnut Festival.

Like all other festivals and carnivals in our country, this celebration is also marked by makeshift shops selling colourful toys, bangles and cosmetics and also a lot of eatables. As the name signifies this is a festival of Groundnuts. This festival is celebrated to offer the annual yield of groundnut to Lord Basava (Lord Nandi-Bull god) the Vahana (mount) of Lord Shiva. Every festival has a mythical story behind it and this one is no different.

The story goes like this. It happened centuries ago. The groundnut farmers in this area noticed that someone was destroying their crops in the night. They launched an investigation. They found out something bizarre. They were shocked to find out that a bull was the culprit. In order to please Lord Basava and stop the bull from ruining their crops, they decided to offer the first yield of every year to Lord Basava. After this incident, a statue of Lord Nandi mysteriously appeared in their village. The villagers were stunned to find out that the statue was gradually growing in size. To stop it from growing enormously, the villagers drilled an iron nail on the top of its head. This nail is believed to be the Trishul that is found on the Nandi's head today.

Later , following the instruction of Kempe Gowda - the founder of Bengaluru, a temple was constructed for Lord Nandi in the year 1537 where the statue was found. The temple is known as the "Bull Temple" today. The statue of a bull inside this temple is considered to be the largest statue with its 15 feet height and 20 feet length. 

The festival is a two days celebration which starts on the last Monday of the "Karthick" month ( a month in Hindu calendar). During these two days, many farmers including those from the surrounding towns come in with their first yield of the year and offer it to Lord Nandi in the Bull temple. Later brisk business happens in the temple fair where farmers sell and buy the yield. Various types of groundnuts are sold here during this time. The festival is so famous that farmers from neighbouring states like TamilNadu and AndhraPradesh also participate in it. Lakhs of small lamps are lighted all around the temple marking the beginning of the festival.  There is no doubt that this festival presents a unique experience to anyone who becomes a part of it

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Her Destroyer

Oh! You, hanging in there;

Lashing out at her.

Hang in there, and stay rolled up.

How you slash away;

Splitting budding dreams into pieces,

With your sharp edges.

Stay there rolled up will you?

Out you come killing lives,

no matter how small you are.

Spitting out venom;

freezing the minds of all dumbos;

Riding the horse of your ego.

You destroy lives and families.

Laden with no guilt at all,

You are capable of annihilation.

Stay rolled up and let her live.

You lick away her dignity with no remorse.

Your war can destroy the unborn hers.

Breaking the fighting soul,

you question her morality.

Creeping into her privacy, what is your morality?

She is just a human yearning to live her dreams.

She fights back and you got to roll up and hide.

Live, she shall; you listen, his sharp little tongue.

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Bigger picture of The Sabarimala issue

Seriously I am tired of listening to a bunch of people arguing over few hashtags like "#ready to wait" and "#RightToPray". I deliberately took time out to watch Arnab Goswami's show on Times now which I had stopped watching a long time ago due to the futility of the show and especially the high decibel arguments out of which nothing comes out except Arnab's intolerant and irritating noise and is a stage to show off his macho ego.  But this time, I wanted to watch his debate because I heard he was supporting a certain side which I never expected him to do considering his political and ideological leanings.

Well, as usual, the whole debate was a showdown. Foremost there was complete chaos which I am yet to come to terms with even after watching his shows and getting frustrated a hundred times. Secondly, the "#ReadyToWait" side was too poorly equipped with counter points to justify their stand. Knowing the kind of show and debate they were going to be part of I expected them to be more prepared to argue with the likes of Arnab and well-informed activists on the opposite side. In between all this one thing always surprises me that in a show where Arnab is supposed to be a facilitator and stay neutral, he comfortably takes a side and smashes the enemies with his non-stop questions. I could smell something fishy here.

For the uninitiated, let me explain the topic of debate a little bit. "Sabarimala" is a Hindu pilgrimage centre located in Kerala which is visited by millions of devotees from all over India who come every year after a 41 days penance which includes strict fasting and continence. This is one temple where people from all religions are allowed to visit. But there is one custom here which restricts entry for women between the age of 10 and 50. This is as per the Kerala high court ruling in 1991 stating the age old custom of the temple. Now the Supreme court of India has taken a petition contesting the judgement by the High court preventing entry of women of certain age. And the verdict is expected very soon which has given way to this intense debate on every type of media. While the women's rights activists are vying for the right to pray for women of all age citing equality for all citizens, a group of women and devotees who are against this have come up with a campaign "#Ready to Wait". These are the 2 groups who were involved in the debate on the above show.

Though the argument of the devotees who take shelter behind the so-called belief and custom may sound fair enough, I believe that women should never be restricted from entering a temple just because they are women. Whatever arguments be put forth, the reality remains that it is misogynous to restrict women in the name of beliefs and customs. Would the god who we believe created everyone advice such practices? There was a time when we practised outrageous things in the name of custom and ritual like Sati, monogamy and child marriages. With time and struggle of many, we were able to break away from such practices and make them strictly punishable. We should be able to break out of this practice also. Those who want to wait can wait. No one is forcing them to go. But if there is even one young woman who wants to visit the temple and worship Lord Ayyappa, she should not be stopped because of her age. If custom is so strictly to be followed then let me ask how many men who visit the temple take the complete 41 days of penance? Citing practical reasons and today's living style there is a short form of the penance which is followed by men. When these things can change with time why not other aspects too?

My point here is something beyond all this discussion. A detailed discussion as above was required so that even I could look at this issue from a third perspective. Why would someone whose ideology has been leaning to the right in all other cases try to speak for and take sides with the activists and supporters fighting for equality? This is where I suspect there is some bigger conspiracy being played behind the scenes. The right wing people have always been irritated by the point that only Hindu religion is targeted and questioned by activists. They always counter every argument by raising one question that why these people never question the practices of other communities. By supporting the "RightToPray" group today, I feel there is a possibility for the same person to conduct another debate at another time to instigate the right against such people by raising the same question which would by them have taken the form of a hatred in the minds of righties. This could lead to bigger problem considering the volatile times we are living in. Maybe there is a need to look at the whole issue from a much wider perspective by everyone.

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Raise Your Voice

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There is so much to protest and fight for and so much to question, but where are all the affected???

India is the world's largest democracy and we did not become one overnight. Thousands struggled and lost their lives on the way to achieve this freedom that we are enjoying today. In each struggle, lives were lost and lessons learnt. The one thing that kept the struggle going was the active participation of people. The history of Indian struggle for independence is a lesson to many but equally forgotten by many. There is callous disregard for all the sacrifice as it remains just in the history books. But my topic is not about the struggles and protests that our forefathers put forward. My topic today is about the fights and protests that we are not doing today. It is what we have become as a society.

As I said in the opening, we are all affected by so many small to major devious issues in the society but we have learnt to live with it. Isn't it close enough a crime, not to raise a question/protest against evil in a society which has seen great inspiring fighters? Isn't it a deadly crime to stay passive to all the injustice happening? Isn't it a sin to stay passive to the sufferings and struggles of our own kind? Let me explain in detail the concern that is eating my mind.

A petty shopkeeper sells things at a cost higher than the MRP but we never question him. Road rules are flouted by everyone and no one questions it. People throw waste on the road and make the place unlivable but we never question people who do it. The roads are always in a bad condition which leads to heavy traffic blocks but we have no time to question the authorities. The schools charge exorbitant fees and make education a business making it inaccessible to millions of poor kids but who cares? Officials ask for a bribe to do their job but we never question them as long as our work gets done. There are so many criminal and corrupt politicians in each political party but we still keep voting for them and bring them to power. We have no time to question them or protest against them. Women and children are molested, abused and raped everywhere in public and in private but we turn a blind eye towards it. There is a person on the road bleeding to death, but we have no time to help. The list is so long that I may need two more articles to list them. These are just few which keep eating my brain. These are smaller issues compared to the bigger scale issues that are plaguing the country.

We know there is wrong happening. We know that it is wrong to do certain things. We know that there are people suffering. Or have we become a robot or zombie to a level that we cannot even relate to human emotions? I believe, we have not yet reached such an abysmal situation. If we have an even little amount of humanity left in us, shouldn't we react? Shouldn't we feel frustrated and start protesting against the injustice, the rampant misgovernance and misuse of power?

Though the answer is a YES, we never say it. We are too engrossed in setting up a comfortable living sometimes even scrambling through the day without any aspirations that we have no time for such aroused sensitivity. We feel safe in the comfort of our home and office and imagine that we are living in a safe environment. We do not want to run the risk of getting into any kind of issue that does not affect us directly. Even if certain things affect us directly it is easier for us to just leave it unseen rather than stand up and question or protest.

The reality is we are selfish. I agree some are helpless. There are few who don't have the resource to question or are powerless to stand up and ask. There are few who are ignorant about their own rights and hence are doomed to live in fear. But what about people who are educated and who have access to the resources to eliminate the ignorance? How many of us are even aware of our rights as a citizen of this country? We never feel it is important to know our rights. We consider it a waste of time.

What I have understood from the news that is coming out every day is that it is high time we stand up and fight for our rights, fight against the injustice and misgovernance. It is high time we become active in the daily politics. It is high time we as citizens of this country start joining hands and stay together and gather power. Various kinds of powers are starting to take control of our lives through all indirect ways. If we don't become active, we are bound to get into another kind of slavery which unlike the British will be from within this country. We need to start from our daily issues. We should raise our voice against every evil, start questioning every wrongdoer. I know it is difficult. But as citizens, it is our responsibility. For that being aware of our rights is the first step. I hope more people become aware and stand up for their rights and also for fellow citizens. We cannot remain passive.

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Truly and Fabulously Feminist

Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing. ~ Arundhati Roy

What is Feminism?

Feminism is the movement which fights for equal rights of a woman as a man. Since we live in a patriarchal society, fight for equal rights for women in every aspect has been gaining momentum. From surviving the female infanticide to living a life of choice the female population in this world faces discrimination and oppression at every stage. Feminism fights against each of this discrimination and strives to get women equal rights.

Feminism is for all

When we fight for feminism we always talk about women empowerment. We talk about educating girls there by making them socially, economically and emotionally independent. But we forget the fact that men also need feminism. As Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie stressed in her speech at the TED Talk, even men need feminism. How many of you have heard someone telling a boy "Be brave, don't cry like a girl"/"Only girls cry, boys don't cry" ? Most of us would have heard someone using such statements to a boy. By saying so we are bringing up the boy with a mentality that it is a shame to cry and such shameful activities are done only by a girl. The boy feels ashamed if he cries, whereas in reality crying is as natural an expression of feelings like laughing or getting angry.

My own definition of a feminist is a man or a woman who says, yes there is a problem with gender as it is today and we must fix it, we must do better. All of us, women and men, must do better. ~ Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Hence a boy has to be a feminist as equally as a girl is. He needs to understand that it is not a shame to cry. He needs to understand a woman is not born to cry and that she need not be protected always. She needs support like he needs at any point in his life. She needs respect the same way he needs. She deserves to stand up same as his entitlement. By not doing this we are putting pressure on men to behave in a certain way like we do to women. When making women strong and self-sufficient we also need to teach our men to respect such or any kind of women and not feel threatened by a woman. We need to teach both men and women to be a good human being. A person should be able to be true to his/her self-innate nature and not bound by the difference of gender that a society advocates. A weak man is as much a man as a strong man is. This way we liberate him of his insecurities and make him more sensitive to issues around him rather than concentrating on his ego.

A Feminist is anyone who recognises the equality and full humanity of women and men. ~ Gloria Steinem

Feminism Vs Egalitarianism

Many people feel ashamed to call themselves a feminist even if they believe in equality. They are afraid of being looked at as a man-hater, a problem creator, a rude and harsh woman which is completely against the common traits expected out of a woman. They are afraid of offending men and all those people who impose the belief that women are supposed to be submissive and the epitome of sacrifice. Hence they take refuge in a much neutral and pleasant term "Egalitarianism".

Every kind of discrimination is wrong. Feminism is different from egalitarianism by the way that egalitarianism treats every person the same no matter what their social, economic and cultural background is. This is theoretically good but practically not workable. Every person/group needs different level and type of empowerment to reach the equal level. In that perspective, feminism looks at the gender- related issues which affect women and works on those issues to resolve them. Similarly, there are activists who work against various kinds of discrimination which is much more specific and fruitful than the general egalitarianism.

Be a Proud Feminist

There is nothing wrong in being a feminist. There is nothing hateful about being a feminist. A true feminist is not a man-hater in general. But a feminist reacts when a woman is treated lower than a man. A feminist questions and fights any system that advocates gender discrimination in any form. Feminism is nothing but realising that women are human beings too and that they are entitled to every natural and man-made resource on this planet as much as a man. In fact, every woman should be proud to call herself a feminist.

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The Smell of Rain

She walked into the store to escape the drizzling outside. She was not dressed for the rain. She felt a sudden pang of worry as she wiped off the water from her neatly waxed hands using the tissue paper from her . She was wearing the wristband in dull gold that Kevin had gifted her. Kevin had always surprised her with gifts. Though she liked all his gifts, she had a personal affinity towards this piece of jewellery - The wristband. She had chosen to wear this almost to all special occasions. She never knew why, but she just felt very calm wearing it.

The rain was pouring now. With a worried look, her eyes browsed through the store. It was a toy store and it was colourful. She started walking through the store looking at the toys. It felt good to get distracted from worries for some time. Walking through she saw a child dressed in a yellow and blue trousers holding a man's hand and looking at her with an awestruck expression. The little boy was cute. She smiled and winked at him. He stared at her with his wide eyes without blinking. She remembered she was overdressed for a place like this and she wanted to get out of this place as soon as possible. But it was still raining.

The girl in the city radio had predicted heavy rain but when she had started from home it was not even cloudy. She was surprised how quickly nature had changed her mood. The blocked roads had forced her to get down a little distance before her destination and walk. But then the rain. The worry pang was back. The boy was still staring at her. His father who was looking through some toys noticed that his son was distracted. Turning around he saw her smiling at the boy. With an embarrassed smile, he tried to pull the boy away, but the boy would not move. His father was now a bit irritated as he had noticed that she was surprised at his behaviour. He apologised, and forcefully pulled him away. Walking away the boy was still staring at her.

She remembered how Kevin had stared at her with the same look the first day they met at a friends' place. She had gone to the party on her friend Riya's insistence. There was music, dance, booze and food. Though she liked all these, on that day she was not in a mood to party. But from the moment she met Kevin, her mood had changed. A friend's friend, he turned out to be more than just a party friend with his witty talks and caring nature. He was the one who had readily agreed to drop her home as her friend Riya was too drunk to drive and she herself could not drive. Well till now she had not learned the art of driving. She remembered, how even after befriending her with his endearing personality, Kevin had continued to stare at her all through the evening and all through their relationship for the next four years. He said he loved to stare at her, well he hated when she used the word stare, he called it admiring. He admired her till the last moment of their relationship when she bid her last goodbye to him breaking their relationship forever.

She was the one who had ended their relationship. He was the perfect lover any girl could dream of. He had respected her for what she was and had helped her carve her character as a strong independent woman. He loved her with no conditions or qualms. He let her be what she wanted to be. But she knew he loved her dearly. He cared for her safety even when encouraging her to travel a lot. They were in love which was full of respect for each other. But it had to come to an end.

Mark was the perfect choice for her life. Kevin was the love of her life. When she told Kevin about Marc, whom her parents had found for her, he knew she was stuck between her love for him and her parents. Her parents would never accept him. He was just a budding photographer with no great means to live and no family to support. She was the princess of her well-off father and he would never want to see her spend the rest of her life with a vagabond like him. All through their relationship, he had struggled to build a successful career but he had failed. He was still struggling after four years. What was the point in bringing a pampered girl into his life against her parent's will and put her through all the struggle? He convinced her to get married to Marc. A family friend with a successful business career, Marc was the perfect man for her life. Kevin was indeed a man of his word and had never tried to contact her after the last day they met and bid goodbye. Last she had heard about him he was married and happily lived with his wife.

She walked to the billing counter to pay for the doll she had selected. The rain had stopped by then. She saw the small boy being carried out of the store by his father. He looked back at her, waved his hand in a goodbye with a smile. She smiled back at him. As she hurried out of the store to meet her client, she could not help but think about her daughter who would be waiting impatiently for her to return home. The traffic had by then dispersed and the roads were clear. Even after building a successful business on her own she had never managed to learn to drive a car. Well she had learnt never to feel guilty about anything, thanks to Kevin. She felt relaxed that Marc would be coming to pick her up after her meeting as she did not want to get wet again in case it rained. She checked her watch, there was no need to worry anymore.

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My simple encounter with nature

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As I stood there looking at the evening sky, the soft wind caressed my hair. I could smell the wetness of the soil and the freshness of the greenery around me. I was feeling light and fresh. Standing like that I wanted to dissipate into the cool breeze like sawdust and travel through all the plains, flying between the trees, touching and playing with the soil, hitting the mountains and splashing the mighty sea. I felt aroused by just being present there at that time.

The lady of the house came around explaining how much she enjoyed staying in such a quaint place away from the busy city. Taking her seat in a chair she explained to me about her small vegetable garden in front of her house. I could sense the child in her while she was talking. She said “I plant one seed of a bean and that one seed sprouts into a plant which bears about 20 beans and each bean has at least 10 seeds inside it. Look at how nature is giving back to us”. Wow! It was such a powerful statement.  I could not help but wonder at the power of nature. But how much do we appreciate the nature that gives us so much? 

She said that every evening she sits in front of her little garden and watches the tiny garden lizard come to the garden and hide in the plants. They sumptuously feed on the moths that come to eat the plants. And thus this small garden sustains an ecosystem. It felt wonderful listening to her speak with the enthusiasm of a kid. Being a gated community away from the city, there is vast empty land around her house. She believes in natural farming and hence she simply throws various kinds of seeds all together onto the empty land around her house. She waters it daily. All these seeds of various plants sprout and grow together. For her, it is more about the happiness and satisfaction than the outcome of it. In this method she has grown beans, ladies finger, green chillies, Green leaves, tomato and may other vegetables all together like a vegetable forest. Initially, the residents of the colony were against her using up the free land. But she convinced them that anyone could bulldoze her garden and she would not feel for it as she looked at enjoying the current moment than worrying about the future. 

I stood there listening to her words and it kindled a sense of happiness within me. All my tiredness of the travel and the long day’s work vanished. I wanted to leave my life in the city and move into that small village. I felt like I could stay there forever and would never want to return to the city life. Nature truly is a magic. We get so much engrossed in our race to earn a living in the city that we have lost touch with nature. Like she said, we are stuck in an imaginary world filled with man-made comforts. We don’t know the real comfort. Comfort is not living in a busy crowded fast paced city and spending a rare weekend in a village paying for the experience. Real comfort is living in a village and living life with nature forever. I wish to live such a life soon. I look forward to those days.

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Why are You Happy?

Happiness does not depend on what you have or who you are. It solely relies on what you think. ~ Buddha

What makes you Happy? This is a difficult question for me to answer. Why are you Happy now? At times, this is an even more difficult question for me to answer. That's because sometimes I feel happy without any valid reason. Today, I and my mom had an argument. It was about being Happy. She is a woman who has gone through too many hardships in her life. I love and respect her a lot. All her experiences and struggles have made her believe that an episode of happiness and joy in life will definitely be followed by a tragedy and hence she is afraid of being happy. But one question to all the people who believe in her theory - Do you ever think about the impending happy moments when you are in great pain/grief/sorrow and get excited about it? NO, right? Okay, I guess you have got my point.

I am a person who believes in being happy even during distress. Sorrow, pain, sickness or grief is a part of life. One or the other will definitely pay a visit now and then to make life a roller coaster ride. There is no escape from it. But what I believe is even in such a moment a person should believe in Happiness and not be afraid of it because happiness is not an object, it is a state of mind. It cannot be bought. It has to be created in our mind.

This society, through its various mediums, has trained us to link happiness to certain objects, activities, and situations. And that is the source of all these negative thoughts about happiness. Happiness is definitely not shopping, partying, watching the movie, cooking, buying expensive stuff or laughing out loud at silly jokes, marrying your loved one or even having children. These are all goodies - things that make us feel good for the moment. These are things we have been made to believe will make us happy. If these were real happiness why aren't we always Happy? Why be afraid of losing happiness? 

Real happiness is to be able to undergo a pleasant experience that will stay with you and make you feel peaceful throughout your life. It is a state of mind. It is to be at peace with oneself even in the most difficult situations. It is to look beyond these endless search for happiness. It is a bliss that you feel, a flying feel that keeps you aware of every moment. 

For me, real happiness is helping someone in need, however, small that help is and not feel great about it but feel humbled by the situation. It is again a state of mind. This we can do anytime and anywhere. What is required is the right mindset to do that. This is where the difference lies when someone says it is not right to be happy when there is a death in the family. When there is a death we grieve and it is natural. What is important is to deal with it. Not by doing shopping or watching a movie but by feeling humbled about the short life on this earth and seeing beyond materialistic pleasure the real sense of happiness. Help someone not because you are capable of, or not because someone needs it. Help because you feel like giving.

Is there a better way to convey this? Maybe there is. But I am lost for words. It is simply a state of mind. When it is that way, there is no fear of losing it to any kind of sorrow or pain. Don't link happiness to anything but to you inner self. I wish I could make it any simpler. Just stay Happy even when you have not got what you always wanted. :-)

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Unique, not Different

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Every topic I write here has an inspiration. I believe it to be the same with almost all writers. Certain incidents arouse a strong feeling to write. Today I read a story about a girl and her differently-abled brother in a website. It was a touching story and it brought about a flush of thoughts into me. 

The way we treat every different person. We as a society have defined a particular way to look at and judge a person. It has been invisibly taught to us by our parents, teachers, friends and the people around us. The first thing we do when we meet a person is, try to know as much about him/her as possible even if the meeting is just a casual one and the chances of meeting that person again are bleak. But we ask all sorts of questions and through their answers, we build an image of that person and then compare that image to the image that is imbibed in our computer brain and check if they fit that image. If they don't then we get uncomfortable. 

We cannot accept anything that we cannot understand. That is the crux of the whole problem. We want to understand everything. We like to believe that we can understand everything. We understand that there are man and woman. We understand that a man behaves in a certain way and a woman behaves in a certain way. We understand when they each dress in a certain way. We understand that they get educated. We understand that they do the job and earn. We understand that a man and woman fall in love and get married (or) get married and then fall in love. We understand that a man and woman have children biologically. We understand that they build a house. We also understand that they are civilised, well-behaved, well earning and well settled. These are what we understand. This is what we have seen from our childhood. This is what has been happening for ages since this world was created.

What we do not understand is that a human being need not always be a man or a woman. What we don't understand is that a man need not always behave like we know him to be and a woman need not always be like we know her to be. We do not understand that a man need not dress always like we know him and a woman need not always dress the way we know her. We do not understand that all human beings are not the same. A man need not always fall in love with a woman and a woman need not always fall in love with a man. Not all human beings have the same abilities. Not all like the same things. Not all can understand the same rules. We don't understand that some human beings are born differently. Some cannot walk, some cannot talk, some cannot see. We do not understand that some human beings cannot think, like others. Some do not have the abilities like others. 

As I said we are afraid of what we do not understand, and hence, we are afraid of all those human beings and their abilities which we do not understand. And when we are afraid what do we do ? We stay away from them, we avoid them, we curse them, we hate them and sometimes we try to harm them. Just because we cannot understand their existence referring to an image that we have created about a human.

A human being is just a human being with or without hands/legs/eyes/nose/skin/face. Human is a human whether it is a man/woman/straight/lesbian/gay/Bi-sexual/Transgender/Queer. Like you were born with a head, 2 hands, 2 legs, a brain that thinks in a particular way, a body that appears in a particular way, ability to talk, laugh, cry, think, analyse, somebody else is born with 1 leg/2 heads/4 hands/hollow eyes/ability not to think, ability not to laugh, ability not to understand, ability not to analyse. That person is a human being too. Simple. We are all made from the same atom - just the formations and permutations and combinations are different. We are all created by the same God who you believe created this whole universe - just that he created you with a specific structure and created the other in a different structure.

It is inhuman to sideline them, ostracise them, insult them or torture them just because they don't fit into the common mould. Every living thing has the same amount of right to live in this world. Accept each one a unique creation/formation. No one person is same as the other. What we need to learn is to accept the uniqueness and stop trying to fit everyone into the image that we know of. Stop calling them different. Just call them by their name and nothing else. Just address them by their name and nothing else. Respect them for what they are because they are unique like you. If you can help, do it, else just leave it. Is it so difficult?

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WED - What we can do

Yesterday was "WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY". This has been trending in the social media. My recent interest in social, political and economic news prompted me to google the significance of this day. As a matter of fact, till this year, this special day has never grabbed my attention. Thanks to my active lingering on social media, I got to read some inspiring posts about the deteriorating status of the environment. I was taken aback by the awareness that the social media has been able to generate among the general public about the importance of a healthy environment. While it feels good to see some serious discussions about the environment, there are some things that go unnoticed.

Planting trees has become a rage among people. This is great as forests are a great wealth to the well being of our environment. Trees control temperature, help in purifying air, play an important role in holding the wealth of the soil, contribute to increasing the water bed of the soil and so on. But does planting trees alone make us an environment friendly person? There are few other small but significant practices that we follow which has contributed to the deterioration of the environment all through the years.

The most important environmental issue is one that is rarely mentioned, and that is the lack of a conservation ethic in our culture. – Gaylord Nelson, former U.S. Senator

Uncontrolled use of Vehicles:

On one side we speak about preserving the environment and on the other side people go about buying cars and other vehicles without any control. It is not a new information that air pollution is one big factor for global warming. The exhaust from vehicles is increasing at an alarming rate. In a larger picture the pollution caused by vehicles may seem very small, but over a period of time this keeps increasing and blot starts looking bigger than we thought. As of 2009 India was the third largest emitter of carbon dioxide after China and the United States. And 9% of India's emission were from transportation. 9% may seem small but this can be reduced by taking some serious measures. Controlling number of vehicles per family, making car pooling compulsory (On Chennai roads 80% of the cars that ply between 8 AM to 11 Am has a single passenger - this is my data) , phasing out old vehicles, ban inferior technologies and diesel, impose heavy duties/taxes to curb huge number of vehicles, improving public transport. These measures can control this type of pollution.

Unscrupulous construction:

This is indeed a direct contributor to environmental destruction. People have this thought that only big dams or factories have adverse effect on the environment, which is not correct. Though these biggies contribute a largely, we individuals are contributing our bit by buying/building houses on reclaimed farm lands, water bodies, environmentally important marshlands etc. And how many of us own more than one house? This is a question we need to ask ourselves. A house is made of sand which is mined from river beds, bricks that are made from soil, cement whose production and consumption is a bane to this earth, steel which is again mined and which in turn has contributed to huge destruction of forests and killing its inhabitants, Wood - yes this directly points to the trees cut. So as the number of houses to build or buy increases, your contribution to environmental destruction directly shoots up. Oh, how much is 2 or 3 of my houses going to destroy nature? Let me tell you , that destruction is not calculated on a one to one basis, it is always exponential. 

Consumerism:

We have become a consumerist crowd. We like to indulge in all the latest technologies,pamper ourselves with the most expensive items one can buy. The consumerist culture has made us buy things that we don't want or never use and also to buy more than we want. Mobile phones, Television, Refrigerator, Laptops, Air coolers - all these we buy and keep changing models every year to satiate our indulging self. But what happens to all the items that we discard? Where do all these items go? Do we have any idea the kind of damage that e-waste is doing to the earth. I would request each one to read a little about it. Then comes eating food - oh yes we love to order food more than we need and we waste it just because we can afford it, no matter it is meat or vegetables - we don't know or don't care for the fact the food we eat also contributes to deforestation and greater emissions. It is all linked. Forests across the world are being destroyed so that they can be converted into grazing land for animals so that we can eat more meat which in turn is ultimately going to make us live a unhealthy life. How sad that we can't see this. Deforestation kills the natural habitat of wild animals and will lead to many more extinct species on this earth.

Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed. – Mahatma Gandhi, Father of India.

These are small things that as individuals we can be aware of in our life. Does this mean we should live a pathetic life without any facilities or advancements ? No, it just means that we need to live a simpler life. Buy/Use only what we really need. Why is it so difficult? What is needed is awareness of what we are doing and little bit of determination.

The theme of this year's World Environment Day is "Zero tolerance for the illegal Wildlife trade". For many of us this earth and its resources were created for the usage of mankind. We don't consider animals and plants a part of it. But when we trade these flora and fauna for money and better sophistication we forget that they are not dependent on us, we are dependent on them. If animals go extinct it will disturb the food chain and the impacts can be terrible for the man kind. This is as simple as i can say it. If Bees go extinct, we will all start scrambling for food. And as per studies bees are disappearing faster than we can imagine. We should start taking environment much seriously. It is the duty of each homo sapien to leave this earth a better place for the future generation. 

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